The invention relates to a device for adjusting the seat depth of a motor vehicle seat.
A device for adjusting the seat depth comprises a base element which is to be arranged in a manner fixed on the seat framework, and a supporting element which is mounted displaceably in an adjustment direction on the base element and serves to support certain body parts of a seat user, for example the thighs, wherein the weight acts on the supporting element in a supporting direction. The supporting element is assigned guide means, by means of which the supporting element is guided movably, in particular displaceably, on the base element in the adjustment direction.
Such a device for adjusting the seat depth can be used, in particular, as a “device for adjusting the seat cushion depth”, with the base element forming part of a pad support on which a seat pad, which is oriented essentially horizontally in its use position, is arranged, and the supporting element, as a leg support, can be displaced together with an additional pad arranged thereon in an adjustment direction, in particular the “longitudinal direction of the seat”, in order to set the effective length of the entire seat cushion provided for a seat user.
In this case, the smallest settable effective length of the seat cushion in the longitudinal direction of the seat corresponds to the “minimum extension” of the supporting element with respect to the base element, and the maximum settable effective lengths of the seat pad corresponds to the “maximum extension” of the supporting element with respect to the base element.
The guide means, which permit an adjustment of the supporting element with respect to the base element in order to set the effective length of a seat cushion, are usually loaded during a setting operation by the considerable weight of an occupant located on the corresponding vehicle seat. The guide means therefore generally comprises two guide slots which extend in the adjustment direction, in order to ensure an adjustment movement which is as rectilinear as possible without the vehicle occupant feeling that the leg support is tilting. However, this can result in the guide means jamming, since there is an over-determining tendency in such a system.